In U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,344 issued May 19, 1981, there is described a method and an apparatus for positioning and securing a coupon within a transparent plastic bag. This coupon is positioned on the bag-forming film sheet and attached thereto by placing an attaching film sheet over the coupon and sealing both sheets together so that the coupon is retained in an immovable position on an inside wall of the bag which is later formed. These coupons are positioned at a common precise position on the bag. We have found that by doing this, there results certain inconveniences. One of these inconveniences is that when the bags are formed to be later supported and attached on wicket pins of a bag-loading machine, the area where the bag has the coupon bulges out and causes an enlargement and deformation of the stack of bags positioned on the wicket pins. This deformation of the stack causes problems in handling the bags in a bag-loading machine. In an attempt to resolve this problem, fewer bags are positioned on the wicket pins. This means that the machine must be stopped more frequently to reload the wicket pins or to correct a malfunction caused by the bulging out of the stack of bags.
Another inconvenience of the above-mentioned prior art bags provided with coupons is that the machine for inserting the coupon is very slow and only between 70 to 80 coupons can be secured to the film every minute. This is caused by the fact that the transfer of coupons is done mechanically in a reciprocating transverse manner.
With the above-mentioned prior art machine, it is only possible to affix a single coupon to a bag wall. There is, however, a need to insert two or more coupons or cards to the same wall of a bag or to affix two flat articles which are different from one another and positioned side by side in a non-interfering manner.